Page 69 of Fragile Union

God, she’s so fucking dramatic.

The funeral mass begins just as Da reclaims his seat. I lean heavily against Rome as the day finally takes its toll on me. I listen to all the things the priest says about Granda and not for the first time, I regret the little time we spent together.

When the choir begins to sing “Amazing Grace”, I’m unable to keep the tears at bay.

“Baby,” Romero whispers as he kisses my cheek. His arm tightening around me, holding me close to him.

When the funeral mass ends, I see Da’s face and the hurt and pain etched in his features isn’t just down to his father dying. No, Da’s hurting for what Ma’s done.

I pray things between him and his woman will be okay, and that he’ll be able to fix it. He deserves some happiness in his life. But before that can happen, he’ll have to deal with Ma. Otherwise, he’ll never be free.

Twenty-Five

ROMERO

Holly shifts beside me, trying to get comfortable. She’s still sore, her beautiful face still marred with bruising. They’ve turned an ugly shade of fucking black and blue, but the swelling has slowly started to recede.

We’re still in New York, it’s been two days since we buried Seamus, the Irish have finally started to go home. Danny and Melissa left yesterday, neither of them wanting to, but they had too. Denis and Zoe left with Henry this morning. Denis left so he could take his wife with him before I killed her. The cunt kept making comments about my wife and no matter how many times I cut that shit off, she’d continue to do it. So, Denis left, taking the bitch with him.

The front door opens, and I glance at Dante who’s currently sitting beside Makenna, both of their expressions blank as they wait for Alessio to enter the room. Dante called him twenty minutes ago, telling him he needed to talk. Of course, whenever the boss calls, you come running, and when the boss tells you he needs to talk, you brace for whatever the fuck’s about to go down.

Alessio steps into the room, his face etched in anger. His gaze goes to my wife. “Holly,” he growls, and my arm tightens around my wife as my back goes rigid.

“Yes,” she replies sweetly as she smiles at him.

“Want to tell me why the fuck my car horn has been changed?” he demands as he takes a seat on the vacant armchair. “The fucking thing sounds like a Dixie horn,” he grumbles.

I look down at my wife who’s got a confused look on her face. “Wasn’t me,” she tells him, “Do you think I’d be able to do that while I’m injured?”

Makenna chuckles. “No, but I bet Danny or Malcolm helped you before they left.”

Holly smiles but shakes her head. “They would have, if I had asked, but I didn’t do that…”

The way she saysthatmakes me brace even more. “Doll face, what did you do?”

She grins. “He shouldn’t have annoyed me.”

Dante rolls his eyes, and I bite back my chuckle. Alessio apologized to her for what went down with the whole Russian and Damini thing.

“I apologized,” he tells her.

“She’s talking about you sleeping with Georgina,” Makenna inputs. “So, what did you do?”

Alessio’s phone rings and he tenses, his gaze swinging to Holly. His lips thin. “You are an evil bitch, Holly. This has been going on for the past two fucking days.”

Holly merely shrugs, not giving a single fuck.

“What has been?” Dante asks him, “What has she done?”

Alessio throws his phone to our brother, “You answer it,” he tells Dante who promptly does.

I watch with a smirk as my brother’s body begins to shake while he talks low on the phone. As soon as the call ends, he bursts out laughing. “How many of those calls have you gotten?”

Alessio sinks back into the chair. “It’s not fucking funny, that’s like the tenth call today.”

“Wait, what am I missing?” Makenna asks, glancing around at us all.

I shrug, I have no idea what my vindictive wife has done.

---